This sucks up the place.

Well, this weekend took a horrible turn. I’m at the hospital with my daughter, Rachel. She was having some lower abdominal issues Saturday, and after hours of wicked pain and misery, we went to the emergency room. She has some kind of infection (doctor’s best guess) in her colon and suffice it to say, it’s some nasty-ass shit. Pun intended.

She had to be hospitalized.

If Rachel says that she doesn’t feel well, it’s never just a cold.

When she was 15, she had a bout of what I thought was mayonnaise food poisoning. Web MD was wrong, y’all. Turns out, her appendix had perforated and then pretty much exploded. The infection was so severe; they had to remove several internal parts to clean them. Thankfully, they put them all back. She got a 10″ vertical scar running up her abdomen as a parting gift. She thinks it’s totally cool. That’s the kind of awesome she is.

From 15 to 17, when she said, “My throat might be a little sore.” That meant strep throat. Without fail. She had strep no less than 10 times. Once, the joints in her fingers were so inflamed that the doctor thought she had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Nope. It was strep. She had neglected to mention the sore throat that she’d had a few weeks earlier. A couple rounds of antibiotics and she was as good as new.

There was more…knee surgery, problematic ovarian cysts, pissed off fallopian tubes, migraines – the kid has had her share of health crap but she always comes out of it not much worse for wear. Considering the horrific stories we’ve heard from other parents regarding the health of their child, we’ve always counted ourselves among the fortunate.

But not right now. My kid is very sick.

Friday, she was fine. During the day Saturday, she had what we thought were some mean-ass menstrual cramps. By Saturday night, she was writhing in pain and we were in the emergency room.

It’s like her colon is trying to forcibly remove itself from her body. The pain is intense and constant. There is a lot of blood loss. She is pale, weak, and exhausted. Have you ever heard your child cry out in pain for days and all you could do was sit there powerless? At one point Rachel looked up at me and said, “Mom, I think I’m dying.” She wasn’t being dramatic or facetious. She honestly thought her body was shutting down. I replied, “No, sweetie, you’re not dying.” Rachel said, “No really mom, I think this is what dying feels like.” What the hell am I supposed to do with that? Have a full on mental break down, hide in the corner and bawl hysterically. Sounds about right. Comfort her and let her know everything will be fine. Another great idea. Instead, I said to my daughter, “If you die, I swear I will kick your ass.” She laughed for a second, more of a half-grin really, but I’ll take it.

I’m under that somewhere.

In the hospital room, I hold myself together. I advocate, question doctors and take notes. I google things like C Diff, ulcerative colitis, sepsis, white blood cells, red blood cells. I make sure they keep the morphine coming. On the outside, I look like I’m calm but as I stand beside her bed, holding her hand, every cell on my inside is screaming. It feels like I’m about to jump out of my skin. I need to know what’s happening to my kid.

There’s a sitting room down the hall where I can go have mini-melt downs. Cry, breathe, pull yourself together…Rinse and repeat.

Today, she will go through more tests. Hopefully, we’ll have some idea of what is causing this soon. I’ll keep you posted.

American German – language lesson #57

Fick. (fick) Fuck. It might actually be ‘ficken’ but I like one syllable better so I don’t care what’s correct. Does grammar matter when you’re shouting an expletive? Also, ficken is too close to the English word fickle and who wants to go around screaming fickle? No one. Well…I changed my mind. Starting today, I’m going to go around screaming the word fickle at random people.

I’m freaking out! She was supposed to have a test around 8 a.m. so we were up all night ‘prepping’. This morning, a nurse came in to tell me that the test is scheduled at 4. She wasn’t at all prepared for my reaction. I just lost it. Poor lady. I’m one melt down away from the psyche ward. ‘Ficken colon’ made me laugh out loud. Not Rachel’s ficken colon – that thing is seriously pissing me off.

Thank you for the crossed fingers and the love! She has freaking E. Coli. This is a much better option than so many others they told us it could be – plus side! We’ll still be living in the hospital for a while. For whatever reason, it tore her up. Jeez. I’m exhausted.

Mama’s good. Rachel has E. Coli. Hopefully, she’ll be feeling better in a week or two. We’ll be hanging out at Mercy for a few more days at least. She missed all her finals, though. Another bridge for another day.

Thank you, Kate! We just found out that Rach has E. Coli – it could have been a much worse diagnosis. Thankfully, she’s young and otherwise healthy so she’s gonna kick E. Coli’s ass. We’ll still be in the hospital for a while but grateful that we’re not looking at some kind of chronic bowel illness.

I don’t even know what to say, except – STOP looking things up on the internet. Just stop. Ask the doctor a million questions, it’s your right. Scream and yell at the doctor if he/she won’t answer you, but STOP looking things up on the anyone-can-pretend-to-know-their-shit-when-they-really-know-fuck-all-internet. Trust me. Play Candy Crush on Facebook. I promise, you’ll become addicted.
I’ll light a candle for your girl, scratch that, fighter! I’m not religious at all, so candles are my thing.
I’ll do it tonight – sending ass-kicking wishes Rachel’s way!

Thank you Brandy!! and yeah, the internet is not a mom with a sick kid’s friend. At all! She’s doing so much better now. We found out it was E. coli. In 24 hours she went from can’t drink water to a little bit of solid food. AWESOME!

Thank you Stacey! We found out a few hours ago that it’s E. Coli. That’s some bad shit! We’ll be in the hospital a while. Well, she will and according to her I’m not allowed to leave – some kind of mom code.

fingers crossed they get bloody moving with the tests. i am having ulcerative colitis so I had my share of that. Normally they should be able to tell by a blood sample if she might have ulcerative colitis or even crohn’s but crohn’s is more likely if someone else in your family has it…sorry for rambling.

You both are pretty strong, you’ll kick some ass!!!Poke The Rock recently posted…Day 7: scary things

oh Jette, I’ve been reading a lot about ulcerative colitis in the last few days and I’m so sorry you’re dealing with that. That’s some painful awful stuff. I hope you have a treatment that helps control your symptoms.

One of Rachel’s tests was positive for E. Coli. As bad as it is, we were grateful because the doctors suspected ulcerative colitis and as you know, that’s chronic – E. Coli will pass. So in that sense, she’s lucky. It’s been a very scary few days.

You are such a good mom. Your daughter is lucky to have you. I hope someone is there to give you hugs. Here is a virtual one from me {{hug}}. I hope they can find it and resolve it quickly.Rhonda @Laugh-Quotes recently posted…What You Missed While I Was Doing AtoZ Challenge

Thanks for the hugs! Yesterday the nurses were hugging me in the hall and Volker is the best hugger ever – there’s been a lot of hugging going on. We found out yesterday that it’s E. Coli. It’s rough but it’s “good” news. She’ll recover from this, unlike the other options they suspected. Now if I could just get Miss Stubborn to eat or drink something other than water. She is NOT interested.

Since I’m late to the party and catching up on your blog, I’m very happy that all of this turned out well and your daughter is better and home now. Mommy strength rocks.The Insomniac’s Dream recently posted…Panic! (And Not At the Disco)

[…] I bought last week before they shrivel up and die. I was in the process of planting them before Rachel’s whole colon explosion thing happened so the bucket of supplies were still sitting on the walkway up to my house. Yay. […]

About Julie

I’m the chick. The handsome guy is my husband, Volker. I was raised in a tiny town exploring creek beds and fishing holes in Northeast Oklahoma. He was raised in a large metro area in Germany exploring museums and all of Europe. It’s almost the same. Ten years ago he loaded up the truck and moved to Bentonville; Arkansas, that is, swimming pools and Wal-Mart. Read More